‘Catch up weddings’ have been proliferating after coronavirus delays, statistics agency CBS has said.

Some 40,000 couples tied the knot from January to July this year, compared to 30,000 in the same period last year and 25,000 in 2020.

In pre-corona year 2019 the number of weddings was also lower than this year, with 36,000 couples saying ‘I do’.

The CBS said the increase is down to ‘catch up weddings’ which had been postponed because of coronavirus restrictions.

A large number of weddings were also reported on 22-02-2022, a date that apparently held significance for 1,200 out of 4,000 couples who married in February.

The number of registered partnership fell slightly during the same period to around 1,400, but this form of partnership is still gaining in popularity, the CBS said.

More than half of couples who opted for a registered partnership did so for practical reasons, such as the birth of a child or the purchase of a house. Just a third of couples got married for practical reasons, the figures showed.